Civic University Challenges in Romanian Higher Education; Students’ Perceptions of Civic Engagement

The contemporary context defined by the current pandemic effects has generated several challenges to individuals, institutions, and organizations across all sectors and industries. Higher education institutions also had to rapidly adapt the teaching and learning processes, the research activity, and the programs for the society development to the virtual or remote context, being a permanent reflection of the institutional missions. The current challenges of the civic university have determined several strategic decisions in Romanian universities due to the international alliances and European framework on civic engagement institutional networking. The paper aims to reveal how Romanian universities have adapted to the civic university approach and if and how student civic engagement is related to their academic results and their extracurricular activities. The study focuses on the civic university concept and characteristics and promotes institutional practices based on leadership initiatives and a survey related to students’ perception of their civic engagement. The research is based on a literature review, on a comparative analysis of institutional academic leadership decisions, and on a questionnaire-based study in one university that has integrated the civic orientation in its institutional mission; the research includes a case study and the use of statistical support. The main findings reveal clarifications on the civic university concept and the Romanian university’s challenges in this context; they also prove that students’ perception of civic engagement is dependent on their extracurricular experience and that the civic engagement level is not exhaustively dependent on the academic results of students.